This album is an overlooked gem in the catalog of Bonnie Raitt. On Takin' My Time, she wears her influences proudly in an eclectic musical mix containing blues, jazz, folk, New Orleans R&B, and calypso. Although she did not write her own material for this album, she demonstrates an excellent ear for songs and chooses material from some of the best songwriters of the day. She is a great interpreter, and her renditions of Jackson Browne's "I Thought I Was a Child" and Randy Newman's "Guilty" from this album are the definitive versions of these songs. The highlights of this album are the romantic ballads "I Gave My Love a Candle" and "Cry Like a Rainstorm," where Raitt adds an emotional depth to the performance unusual for such a young woman…

Levee Town is the 5th studio album by Sonny Landreth. Released on Sugar Hill Records Oct. 17, 2000 and re-released in an Expanded Edition on Landreth’s own LandFall Records April 21, 2009. This is slide guitar wizard Sonny Landreth's most ambitious work, and true to form it comes with no glossy fanfare (even the packaging is sepia tinted), just straight-ahead, well-crafted songs played with his usual intelligent, heartfelt playing. Like the photos that are easily passed over due to the quiet subtly of the sepia tones, the intricacy of his guitar work can easily be overshadowed by the flash that is inherent in the slide guitar. He takes the time here to do a number of acoustic songs and shows that there is more to him than a loud flash.

Legendary hard rock guitarist Leslie West – best known for his work with Mountain and the Vagrants – shows that he's not about to start slowing down despite a career that's spanned six decades with this set of passionate, blues-influenced rock & roll. Still Climbing features West offering up his trademark meaty guitar riffs and gale-force vocals while accompanied by a handful of guest stars, including blues guitar legend Johnny Winter, Creed guitarist Mark Tremonti, Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider, and modern-day bluesman Jonny Lang. Along with a handful of fresh original songs, Still Climbing also includes new interpretations of "When a Man Loves a Woman," "Over the Rainbow," and "Feeling Good."

Of the numerous British blues-rock bands to spring up in the late '60s, the Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation was one of the better known, though solid reception on tours did not translate into heavy record sales. Musically, the group recalled John Mayall's Bluesbreakers during the 1966-1967 era that had produced that group's A Hard Road album, though with a somewhat more downbeat tone. The similarities were hardly coincidental, as the band's founder and leader, drummer Aynsley Dunbar, had been in the Bluesbreakers lineup that recorded the A Hard Road LP. Too, bassist Alex Dmochowski would go on to play with Mayall in the 1970s, and guitarist Jon Morshead was friendly with fellow axeman Peter Green (also in the Bluesbreakers' A Hard Road lineup), whom he had replaced in Shotgun Express.

New England is the seventh studio album by rock band Wishbone Ash. It was a success compared to the band's Locked In album, but still did not chart as high as most of their previous albums. This album would mark the "Americanization" of Wishbone Ash, as the band would relocate from England to the Northeastern United States (New England) for tax purposes. New England contained an even balance of hard rock songs and breezy, soft rock ballads, the latter of which would see further exploration from Wishbone Ash on their next studio album, Front Page News.

Robert Randolph is one of the rare artists who's been able to convince a sizable audience that the pedal steel guitar has a place outside country music. This is partly due to his over-the-top skills on the instrument, but just as importantly, Randolph and his Family Band have consistently shown their ability to launch a soul shakedown party of major proportions whenever they take the stage or set up in the studio. 2017's Got Soul, Randolph's fifth studio album, seems designed to capture the energy and power of Randolph and his band in full flight, and producer Matt Pierson has gone out of his way to give this material a big, rollicking sound that makes the most of the muscle and sweat of this music. While the tough, funky report of the rhythm section and the call of the organ provide the backbone of these songs, it's Randolph's pedal steel that gives Got Soul its unique sound, as the wailing peals of his instrument tear through the mix and lend this as much of a vocal presence as any instrumentalist can provide. While vintage soul and funk figures play a big role in these arrangements, Randolph's background in gospel is never entirely out of the picture, and there's a churchy passion at the heart of this music that adds plenty to the emotional resonance, especially on tracks like "Be the Change" and "Heaven's Calling".

Best known as a member of the legendary Welsh band Man, Deke Leonard also enjoyed a successful solo career in the early 1970s.
Iceberg (1973). Though Deke Leonard had made his reputation playing progressive rock in the Welsh group Man, his first solo album has more of a roots rock feel than anything released by that band. Roots rock played by someone with a taste for odd arrangements, perhaps, but roots rock nevertheless. "Lisa" and "Jesse" both sound like something that the Band might have turned out, country fiddle, organ, and all, though Leonard's distinctive, reedy voice makes it unlikely that anyone is actually going to mistake one for the other. Rockabilly comes in for some attention too, as in the delirious "Hard Way to Live"…

The product of producer Paul Rothchild, Rhinoceros were conceived, planned, and executed as a "supergroup." This was the group's raison d’être and, ultimately, its downfall. Pieced together after a marathon series of jams at the producer's house in the spring of 1968, Rhinoceros were intended to be the heaviest band of the time. Rothchild and Elektra came very, very close. With former members of Iron Butterfly (Danny Weis, guitar), the Daily Flash, and Buffalo Springfield (Doug Hastings, guitar), as well as some highly respected studio aces such as Billy Mundi on drums, they formed a very good band indeed, but not really a group. Fortunately, although the chemistry is a bit skewed, the music isn't half bad. There are some excellent soul-drenched rock recordings here - from the album-opening "When You Say You're Sorry" to possibly one of the best-ever versions of "You're My Girl," the group was capable of some mighty music…

Those who became aware of Robert Randolph's considerable musical gifts on either the awesome Live at the Wetlands or on the underrated Unclassified are in for a surprise. Colorblind expands the Robert Randolph & the Family Band's palette – on tape anyway, they've been doing stuff like this on the stage for years – stretching out from the blues ledge into gospelized, gritty funk and soul, and expanding those genres in the process. Using a group of producers from cut to cut, the Family Band takes no prisoners in this wildly crazy and utterly joyous mix of musical forms and flavors. Sure, it's a bit slicker than Live at the Wetlands, but not in any detrimental way. This is what these cats have been laying down for awhile now. It's been their vision and they've finally brought it into the studio. The opening joint is a stomping wail called "Ain't Nothing Wrong with That" that features the Family Band chanting a refrain, handclaps, and killer female backing vocals as well as Jason Crosby's B-3, as Randolph's pedal steel hovers above before coming in for the killing groove.

Illinois Speed Press was a guitar-driven rock quintet on this, their first recording. Produced by Chicago's producer and mentor, James William Guercio, this album sounds at times like Chicago Transit Authority without horns. ISP is important in rock history primarily as the band from which co-leader Paul Cotton emerged to replace Jim Messina in Poco, whom he would help guide to commercial success. "Get in the Wind," later recorded by Poco in a completely different form, rocks hard in this version, while Cotton's "P.N.S. (When You Come Around)" hints at the sound of From the Inside era Poco. The bouncy acoustic number "Here Today" is another highlight, standing out amidst the bluesy rock that makes up the bulk of this recording. The liner notes, designed like a newspaper, were written by Firesign Theatre.

The second full-length from sacred steel genius Robert Randolph & the Family Band delivers, from the studio, the same promise, grit, grease, and sweat that Live at the Wetlands did. Randolph pulls out the stops in the studio, using his own band, without any of the hotshot guest stars who he's appeared with in the last two years. Unclassified features a road-tested, studio-savvy band using all of its collected gifts with producer Jim Scott to make a record that is as much about soul, funk, hard rock, folk, and jam band intensity as it is about the gospel music that first inspired the unit.